Ben Shephard has shared the fuelling strategy and mental approach he’ll rely on for the London Marathon this Sunday. The 51-year-old is returning to the iconic race and, while he’d love to break four hours, he’s refusing to put too much pressure on himself. Put simply, he wants to enjoy the experience.

That doesn’t mean he’s taking his fuelling lightly. Without enough carbohydrates, runners risk hitting the infamous wall in the second half of the race – something that’s notoriously difficult to recover from. Shephard is doing everything he can to avoid it.

‘The plan is 30g of carbs every 20 minutes,’ he tells MH. ‘But for the first hour, I’ll do a gel every 30 minutes, which I think should be enough – so around 90g of carbs an hour.

‘I don’t think I’ve planned my long training runs very well with fuelling, so that’s the one concern I have for Sunday. I’ve done plenty of training and feel like I’m in pretty good shape, but I have left it a bit to chance, and I’m fixating on it a little bit.’

Research suggests marathon runners need between 60 and 120g of carbs per hour, with faster runners typically leaning towards the upper end of that range. That intake is supported by a carb load in the days leading into the race, along with a high-carb breakfast on the morning itself. Shephard is also planning to top up his glycogen stores closer to his start time.

‘I’m working the night before, so I’m not going to get much sleep, but that’s fine. I’ll get up early because I need to get things moving and, you know, sort all that out. But breakfast will be really high carb,’ he says.

No matter how you frame it, marathons aren’t easy. But Shephard has enough experience of endurance events to know how to grind his way through them, often returning to a simple idea when things get tough.

‘What’s got me through when it’s been really horrible is knowing it’s going to end,’ he says. ‘There’s a brilliant line – I think it’s in What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by [Haruki] Murakami – and it’s, “The end is inevitable.” That’s a phrase that’s stuck with me for years.

‘I say it to myself over and over again – at some point, this will stop, and I’ll look back on this moment and be very pleased I got through it.

‘If I’m really struggling, I’ll put a big track on – something that takes me out of the moment. Then I can just focus on the music and keep going. Beautiful stuff.’

Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.

During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.

Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…

You can follow Ryan on Instagram @ryan.dabbs or on X @ryandabbs_